It is known to construct artificial games-playing surfaces over a substrate, for example of sand or gravel by applying a geotextile and a top layer of artificial turf to simulate natural performance characteristics. The use of particulate materials other than natural aggregates or combinations of both has also been proposed.
Desirable performance characteristics of the construction may vary widely depending on the primary intended use of the surface.
Impact absorbing surfaces (IAS) for playgrounds are now used in preference to concrete as they can reduce the chance of serious injury to or death of a child striking them.
A number of structures for these IAS are known, for example, layers of aggregate, typically Lytag™, and/or sand enclosed in a geotextile envelope and topped by a synthetic grass carpet layer. The layers of sand and aggregate are segregated by walls of the envelope in order to prevent depletion of regions of the structure due, for example, to repeated compression in regions subjected to much wear and/or impact such as under a swing, or due to the action of ground water or rain moving the aggregate and/or sand, or to protect the specialist aggregates from migration of ‘foreign’ materials from the sub-structure causing ‘contamination’ of the performance layers. Such compression, movement or contamination of the aggregate and/or sand degrades the performance of the IAS.
These structures have inherent practical and/or logistical problems associated with them such as the need to transport mineral aggregate infill to an installation site. Additionally, spillage of aggregate infill at an installation site is costly as spilled aggregate infill must be removed from the playing surfaces. Further to which in order to achieve a consistent surface layer it is necessary to have level aggregate infill and geotextile envelope structures and this requires labour intensive hand finishing.
Another IAS structure utilises a rubber granulate material which is screeded into and stabilised by a random pile layer which is usually overlain by a resin impregnated textile material. A synthetic grass carpet layer tops the textile material.
Attempts have been made to remove the need for aggregate infill by fabricating a playing surface underlay from multiple layers of a random pile material, for example a material known as vertical horizontal angular fibre (VHAF™) but this has limited applications.
Also, the use of bound rubber tiles or wetpour rubber is known. However, such systems can suffer from breakdown of resins used in the binding of the rubber over time and their performance can degrade accordingly.
Some playing surfaces, particularly children's playgrounds rather than games pitches, must fulfil a standard, the head injury criteria (HIC), which is the integral of the force, measured in G's, applied by a test piece, dropped from a known fall height (measured in meters) onto the playing surface, with respect to time (seconds), i.e. ∫F,dt. The value of the HIC must not exceed 1000 at a given fall height if a playing surface is to be considered appropriate for use at that fall height. A measure of the critical fall height (CFH) is the height at which the HIC reaches a value of 1000. The height at which the maximum force exerted exceeds 200 G can also be taken as a measure of the CFH.
Some playing surface structures must therefore have impact absorbing properties, but at the same time they must not present a surface which is unnaturally soft for a user to walk on with an attendant risk of giving rise to twisting injuries to a user's ankle, or injuring the user in some other manner.
Thus there can be a conflict between the requirements for avoiding impact injuries to users' heads and the requirements for achieving a firm footing.
Hockey and football playing surfaces also require to be shock absorbing to some extent, partly for player comfort, but also for controlling the playing characteristics of the pitch, and they are tested to be shock absorbing to different degrees. Sand and stone are inherently shock absorbing but with limitations; this property improves when displacement of the particles occurs, but this is not always a satisfactory outcome as the level of the area may be disturbed, and it is known to provide a shock pad layer.
Most conventional shock pad layers have a degree of elasticity. We produce a shock pad layer consisting of a fibre shock pad and loose rubber granules. This is very effective, but can be costly to construct as the granules are spread by hand and it is labour intensive. More rubber and larger particles could be used within an envelope rather than in the shock pad. Problems with larger loose rubber crumb are that if it is disturbed, it does not self-level the in same way as sand or finer crumb.
Further problems can arise when screeding a thin layer of rubber particles for forming an outdoor playing surface even when they are stabilised by a fibre shock pad. The application of such particles is disturbed by any adverse weather conditions during the laying: even a light breeze makes it difficult to lay an even layer of rubber particles, and the layer could easily be further disturbed by the positioning of any overlying layer such as a layer of artificial turf without the most careful working procedures.
In order to decrease the cost of incorporating a layer of rubber, it would be possible for this rubber layer to be applied by rolling out a rubber mat or applying a layer of rubber tiles. Unfortunately however, the use of such rubber tiles and mats has certain disadvantages for use in outdoor playing areas in that if the rubber is made thick enough to withstand handling without damage, it on occasion can either be rather impervious to water, in which case the playing area may become waterlogged after rain, or the rubber can swell due to the absorption of rainwater and this tends to disturb the evenness of the playing surface. Problems can also arise in laying such rolls or tiles in such a manner as to achieve consistent joints between successive elements.